Kerry to visit Ukraine on February 5

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Ukraine next week to show U.S. support for the government as fighting spikes with pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry will leave for Kyiv on February 5. He is then to head to an international security conference in Munich.

There had been speculation Kerry might travel to Moscow during the trip.

Psaki says no such stop was planned but that Kerry would meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while in Germany, although she said Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while both men are at the Munich Security Conference.

Kerry would have been the most senior U.S. official to visit Moscow since the start of the Ukraine crisis last year.